


Riding Shooting Stars

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: AU, M/M, Tops!Judai, also winged kuriboh is a dog, kind of like arc v universe but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 15:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8166103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: It's been two years since an infamous politician made it illegal for Commons-registered individuals to work with D-Wheels, making it nearly impossible for them to enter in any tournament that would help them increase their standard of living.In this world, Yusei, secretly building his own D-Wheel for the Friendship Cup, meets Judai, a Tops boy that joins him in his journey to the Cup...but Judai might be hiding something that could throw a wrench in their relationship.[A late birthday present for my dearest friend Jaden, I really hope this is good enough!!!]





	

“Stop it! Get off him! Go _away—_ Kuri, Kuri chase them, get them off of him!”

Yusei's body throbbed from the fists that had dug into every unguarded spot on his body—his head was spinning and he could taste blood in his mouth. His fists were curled up over his head, elbows tucked in at his sides to protect himself, not that it had stopped the attackers from kicking every other spot they could reach.

He heard a snarl then, an animal growl and frightened squeaks overhead—the shadows of his attackers melted away as he heard claws scrabble over the sidewalk and something big was suddenly standing over him, the echo of the snarl in his ears. His heart leapt into his throat and he curled up tighter, eyes shut—what was about to attack him?? Was it a dog? Had someone brought a dog again??

“Good girl, Kuri, good girl. It's okay now.”

A voice? Who's was it? Yusei chanced cracking his eyes open. All he saw for a second was a thick, fluffy stump right in front of his face.

“Hey, are you okay? Kuri, it's okay, you can move now, you don't have to stand over him—come on, girl, you're gonna smother him—”

Something wet dragged over Yusei's face and he spluttered, struggling up. His head smacked into something thick and fuzzy overhead, and after a few seconds of scrambling limbs and fur he was sitting up, head spinning and tongue thick and dry in his mouth. He blinked into the sudden burst of light in his eyes, trying to make sense of what had happened.

He was still sitting on the sidewalk outside the apartment complex, the very edge of the Tops neighborhood. The trash can was still broken open around him and he thought he had a wrapped stuck to his elbow, from when the Tops kids had pushed the trash can over at him.

In front of him was the biggest dog that Yusei had ever seen in his life.

A swear jumped to the tip of his tongue and he tried to scrabble back. This dog was taller than he was from where they were both sitting across from each other, so thickly fluffy that Yusei couldn't see the dog's eyes, and its floppy ears were no more than fluffy bumps on its head. It's spotted black tongue lolled out of its mouth sideways, teeth poking out at the edges of its droopy jowls—Yusei was more fixated on those teeth than anything else, so he almost didn't notice the boy standing next to the dog for a second.

“Are you okay?” the boy said again. “Do you need any help?”

He couldn't be any older than Yusei, and was probably younger—no older than fifteen, definitely. He had a round face, framed with tousled brown hair in almost the same shade as the dog. His red sweater was a size or two too big for him, hiding his hands as he hugged his arms around the dog's neck—and Yusei could now see that, for some reason, the dog appeared to be wearing a pair of tiny angel wings on its back.

It took a second for Yusei's heavy tongue to form words.

“That's—big,” was the first thing he said.

The other boy blinked, brown eyes wandering over to the dog. Then he smiled widely, stepping forward and reaching out one hand to Yusei.

“It's okay! This is Kuriboh. She doesn't bite, I promise. She only growls when she doesn't like people.”

Yusei bit the tip of his tongue. He had had too many bad experiences with dogs in the past....but this dog...didn't look particularly vicious? More dopey if he had to come up with a word for it. He looked at the boy's hand for a moment, still held out to him with the sleeve jiggled back around his wrist.

“Are you okay? Those guys really knocked you around...you're not bleeding are you?”

Yusei hesitated a second longer, his body panging with pain. Then, hesitantly, he reached out and put his hand on top of the other boy's. The boy smiled as he helped Yusei up to his feet. And then, without a beat, he put Yusei's hand on top of Kuriboh's head.

“See! She's nice. She just wanted to make sure you were okay too.”

Yusei almost flinched away, convinced that she was going to bite him. But as soon as he touched the dog's head, his eyes widened—this was the softest thing he had ever felt in his life. Kuriboh panted loudly, and he could see her huge, thick tail sweeping slowly back and forth behind her, feel her head pushing up into his hand.

“She likes getting scratched behind the ears,” the boy said. “Like this!”

He demonstrated, and the tail wagging increased to a much more rapid speed. Yusei hesitated at the big dog—even with him standing, this dog's head reached Yusei's chest. He cautiously rubbed his hand behind the dog's fluffy ears. Immediately, the tail began to whump whump whump against the ground, and the panting got louder.

“She likes you!” the boy said, laughing. “See? She's nice.”

Yusei found himself smiling slightly, rubbing his fingers behind the dog's ears.

“She's....really soft,” he said.

“I know, right??”

The boy pet the dog for a moment longer before looking back up at Yusei.

“My name is Judai,” he said. “What's yours? And oh, you still haven't answered me, are you okay? I've got some bandaids if you need them or something.”

Judai? The name sounded somehow familiar...why was that? Yusei couldn't think of it. He ducked his head.

“Thank you, Judai, but I'm all right,” he said. “Thanks for...chasing those guys off of me. I'm...Yusei.”

Judai's smile was huge and shining.

“Hi, Yusei! It's awesome to meet you!”

Kuriboh huffed happily in between them, her tail sweeping across the ground in lazy swipes.

~

“Oh _wow_ these are _amazing!_ ”

If there was one thing Yusei hadn't expected from a Tops kid, it was definitely Judai's unbridled enthusiasm for Yusei's junk yard, particularly Yusei's messy, awkward robots.

Judai poked at one block one's arms, which were made out of broken PVC pipe and wires for joints. It shuddered at the touch and Judai's eyes sparkled.

“Holy shit,” he said. “This is so cool—you _built_ these?”

“Well, I...mess around with them,” Yusei said, perched on a pile of worn tires. “They don't do much though. I mostly work on cars and motorcycles and stuff.”

“Whoa! That's cool too! Do you ever fix D-Wheels?”

Yusei's eyes cast down to the ground and Judai seemed to realize what he said.

“Oh....right. Sorry....”

“It's not your fault.”

“It might as well be. _I'm_ a Tops too.”

Judai's voice was edged with anger, and his throat sounded tight. Yusei couldn't tell if he was really, really angry, or about to cry. Judai jabbed at the robot again to make it jiggle. That was a particular screw up that Yusei hadn't figured out what to do with. All it did was jiggle when you touched it. It was supposed to pick up pennies, but he couldn't figure out how to get it's knees to bend so that it could reach them.

“You're so good though,” Judai said, looking over the robots and the scattered scribbles of Yusei's blue prints. “It's so dumb—why won't they let Commons work on D-Wheels? It's so stupid. How are they supposed to participate in the Friendship Cup without a D-Wheel?”

Judai's voice was actually shaking, his hands trembling. Yusei could hear the angry, serrated edge to Judai's voice, as though he were about to rip something to shreds. Yusei felt his heart go out to Judai for his outrage...but for his own part, he had stopped being angry. There was no point. The Tops would weaponize his anger against him...it was easier just to stay quiet and not caring, even if it hurt.

“They expect us to save up to buy one from a Tops shop or something,” Yusei said, kicking his feet back and forth. “And they expect us not to be able to get that much money....so it keeps us from even trying.”

Judai's face actually got red like his sweater. Yusei thought he heard him grumbling to himself, maybe even swearing. He seemed...more angry than Yusei would have thought. He almost felt lke he should ask if something was wrong, something other than his anger at Yusei not being able to work with D-Wheels. Kuriboh's ears perked up from where she was lounging on the ground, and Yusei thought he could imagine her eyes glancing over at Judai under her thick bangs.

Yusei bit his lip. Then he hopped off the tires.

“Judai—can I show you something?”

Judai looked up from the robots, at Yusei's hand outstretched. After a beat, he put his hand on top of Yusei's.

Yusei's hand wrapped around Judai's and he pulled the boy around the stacks of junk and piles of scrap metal, deeper into the junkyard. Behind them, Kuriboh hopped to her feet and trotted after them, ever a shadow. Yusei stopped in front of a big sheet of metal leaning against one particularly tall pile.

“You can't tell anyone,” Yusei said. “Okay?”

Judai responded by pretending to zip his lips and throw away a key. Yusei sucked in a breath—he hadn't shown anyone. Hadn't _told_ anyone.

He released Judai's hand so that he could pull the sheet metal back and reveal the little cave of junk that he had built by hollowing out the space and propping it up with pieces of metal. He heard Judai gasp, caught a glimpse of his eyes widening.

“Yusei,” he whispered, his eyes caressing the shape of the half finished D-Wheel, its cannibalized frame cobbled together with wires and mismatched colors of outer covering. “It's _beautiful_.”

Yusei thought that might have been the best words he could have ever heard.

~

“Pass me the wrench, please?”

“Big, medium, small, or tiny?”

“Small.”

Judai gently tossed the wrench over the top of the D-Wheel and Yusei caught it midair, the pair of them grinning at each other over the seat for their synchronicity. Yusei went to work fixing up the rest of these bolts. On the other side of the frame, he could hear the spray of Judai's spray can as he coated the mismatched outer pieces in one color. _The aesthetic is important_ , he had insisted. _It gives you an image—a brand. It makes you stand out._ Mostly, though, it was because Judai didn't know much about machines, but he knew a lot about making things look cool.

It was honestly just a blessing having someone to work with for once. To have another voice chattering on the other side of the bike instead of sitting in the middle of the junkyard, alone except for the whistle of the wind through metal and broken furniture.

“It needs a name,” Judai said once while they were taking a break.

They were sitting on the top of a junk pile, on a board that Yusei had fit up there so that he could sit and look at the stars at night. It was cool, but not cold for once. He had never sat up here with someone else before. There almost wasn't enough space for the pair of them, and they had to sit really, really close. He could feel Judai's shoulder pressing against his, see his breath curl out of his mouth up towards the stars overhead.

“It's a bike,” Yusei laughed.

“No, but really, it needs a name—look, all of the big D-Wheelers have a NAME, okay? It's how they get known and stuff, like superheroes! There's Archfiend, or Pulseplane, or Oxidation Firecopter.”

“Those sound ridiculous.”

“Come on, Yuu, let's call it something!! Or I'm gonna name it Kuriboh after my dog.”

Yusei laughed—it felt so good to do that. When had been the last time he had laughed so much, smiled so much? Somewhere below, he heard Kuriboh make a soft huff in the dark, still hanging around the bottom of the pile to wait for them.

“Pleaseeee, I want to name it! I know it's your bike and all, but it should have a name!”

His hand fell on top of Yusei's, and he felt static skitter down his arm. He glanced away to avoid acknowledging that Judai had done it, in case it was a mistake—his eyes looked up at the stars instead. The stars that he had stared at every night, alone...the stars that he was looking at now, with someone at his side instead. Underneath them, he could almost see the bike glimmering in the light, silver and red and dancing with starlight.

And overhead, a shooting star streaked past, flashing once over Yusei's eyes. He drew in a breath, and he heard Judai gasp.

“Shooting Star,” Yusei said suddenly.

“Huh?” Judai said.

“Shooting Star,” Yusei said again. “Let's call it Shooting Star.”

Judai's eyes glimmered with the reflection of stars in the dark. He looked up at the sky, and then back down at Yusei. His eyes were alight, and the smile on his face rivaled the light of the moon.

“Shooting Star,” he repeated. “It's _perfect_. You'll ride it up into the sky, and you'll reach your dreams!”

Yusei's hand moved of its own accord, coming on top of Judai's to hold it on top of his.

“ _We'll_ ride it,” he said. “Together.”

Judai jumped a little at first when Yusei's hand touched his. But he didn't move away. He didn't frown, or look away, or anything. He only smiled, and after a beat, rested his head against Yusei's shoulder.

~

They had enough cards in between them to build a full deck. Any expert would have told them that there was no way their build could work. It was a mess of archetypes and techniques and supports for things that they didn't even have.

“I guess I always thought Tops had a lot of cards,” Yusei admitted, looking over their spread. “Not everyone, I guess...”

“Not me, at least,” Judai said with a sigh. “I'm not allowed to have them.”

“What? Why not?”

Judai never answered when Yusei asked that. Yusei never pressed. Kuriboh would always wander over in the middle of the silence and flop down in between them, her tail wagging as the impact of her flop sent their cards whirling into the air and they had to chase after them.

“You're gonna win the tournament,” Judai said. “And everyone will see that you're awesome.”

“They'll see we're _both_ awesome,” Yusei said with a grin, catching a Tuner that flew away from Kuriboh's swishing tail.

“We can't both ride,” Judai said, laughing.

“Why not? Didn't those twins do that during the Cup last year?”

“Yeah, but I...don't know how.”

Yusei felt his heart light up, and he put his hand on top of Judai's again.

“I'll teach you.”

“No, really, Yusei, it's not a big deal—this is your show! I'll cheer you on from the sidelines.”

Yusei shook his head furiously. Judai tilted his head, looking confused.

“What?” Judai said.

“I don't want to,” Yusei said.

“Don't want to what?”

“I don't want to ride without you. This bike—it's both of ours. The deck is too. I don't want to ride without you. I don't want to go out on Shooting Star without you. Please. Judai. Please ride with me.”

 _Please don't make me be alone again_ , Yusei didn't say out loud. _I don't know if I can handle that._

Judai looked like he was going to say something, or maybe cry. He ducked his head and his bangs fell over his face.

He only nodded, and whispered.

“Okay,” he said. “I promise.”

Yusei felt like there was something he wasn't saying.

But he didn't press.

He never did.

~

The best part of every day was when Kuriboh bounded into the junkyard, boofing loudly with her tail all aflutter, almost barreling Yusei to the ground as she rammed her head into him to beg for pets. It meant Judai was here.

“Oof! Okay girl, okay, I'm happy to see you too,” Yusei laughed, rubbing behind her ears as her tail fwumped against the ground. “Where's Judai, Kuri?”

He looked up, glanced around. That was...weird. Judai was usually only a few feet behind, jogging after Kuriboh with a red face and heavy pants, a goofy grin over his face. Maybe he had fallen farther behind than usual? Kuriboh could be a lot faster than she looked. And Kuriboh didn't seem distressed so nothing could be wrong, right?

Yusei felt something slither at the base of his stomach, and he shuddered. Something wasn't right at all. He could feel it.

He strapped on the cobbled together Duel Disk, not yet attached to their D-Wheel frame, and slipped their patchwork deck into the slot, just in case. Kuriboh trotted at his heels, almost tripping him as he slipped between the hole in the junkyard fence and wandered off around, towards the neighborhood where Judai always came from.

He heard the voices long before he saw them.

“I'm serious, fuck off.”

“Or what, you'll sic your puffball on us—or oooh nooo worse, you'll sic your _parents_ on us?”

“You're making me late. Go away.”

“Tough luck, Yuki, but I don't think you're gonna get to see your _boyfriend_ today. Oooh what would happen if I told your parents where you've been headed off to?”

“Shut the fuck up, you don't know what you're talking about!”

“High and mighty Yuki went to go play in the trash with a Commons kid—I can't wait to see what kinda stir that'll make back at your fancy-ass place!”

Yusei's chest grumbled with anger as he realized he recognized the voices—one was Judai, of course, the others—those were some of the kids that had attacked him when he had first met Judai. They kept harassing him every time he tried to go to the hardware store on the very edge of the Tops neighborhood. His hands curled into fists, and he could feel the rumble of Kuriboh's growl at his sides.

It was only just before he sprung around the corner that the other piece of information clicked into place.

_Yuki._

_Judai's surname is Yuki._

Yusei actually froze, stopping so abruptly that he wobbled. Judai's name had always sounded familiar to him. Now he understood—he was _Yuki Judai_ , the son of Yuki Michio...the politician who had made it illegal for Commons to work with D-Wheels.

More than one thing clicked into place.

Judai's unnatural anger when talking about how Yusei wasn't allowed to fix D-Wheels. His single-minded focus on helping Yusei build the motorcycle. His uncertainty about wanting to ride with Yusei in the Cup.

 _He's been hiding it from me,_ Yusei thought. _He's been hiding who he was._

Yusei wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. Anger? Upset? Uncertainty? He didn't feel anything at all for a moment.

Then he heard a thud, a cry—someone had just pushed Judai, he knew it. Someone was hurting Judai.

Yusei threw himself around the corner—sure enough, he took in the scene immediately. The boy was shoving Judai against the wall, another pair hovering around him as Judai scrabbled at the boy's hands, tried to kick him off.

Kuriboh moved first, but Yusei wasn't far behind. The giant dog tackled the boy holding Judai just as Yusei's fist connected with the boy's jaw. One of the others turned just as Yusei struck, and he shouted, going for Yusei with a kidney punch. Kuriboh threw her body weight into the boy's knees and he tripped, falling right into Yusei's elbow to the gut. The third boy met Judai's fist as soon as Judai was free, and then Kuriboh was making loud, terrifying snarling noises that would have made _Yusei_ curl up in fear if they had been turned at him.

“This isn't fucking over, Yuki!” one of them shouted over his shoulder as they ran. “Wait til I tell your parents who your _boyfriend_ is!”

“Fuck you!” Judai shouted after them, and even as Yusei panted for breath, he could see that tears were bubbling up in Judai's eyes, his jaw clenched as he tried to hold them back.

For a few moments after the boys disappeared, the only sound was the pair of them panting for breath, the sound of Kuriboh huffing at their feet as her tail wagged slowly back and forth, pleased with herself for doing such a good job of protecting her boys. Neither one spoke, neither looked at each other. Yusei's head still spun a bit. Judai was Yuki Judai. He hadn't known this whole time.

His eyes wandered up to Judai. The round face, usually adorned with a shining smile, tilted down so that Yusei couldn't see his eyes behind his bangs.

It bloomed in his head all at once, the thought—it didn't matter. It didn't matter who Judai was, or what he had decided to hide. He was still Judai.

“Judai,” he whispered.

Judai didn't look up. Yusei saw one tear roll down his cheek.

“I guess you know, now,” he mumbled. “They weren't quiet about my name.”

“Judai—”

“I'm sorry, I didn't want to—I didn't mean to hide it, I just didn't want you to—I'm sorry.”

Almost before Yusei could stop him, Judai bolted. But Yusei anticipated the motion, grabbed his wrist— _don't go. Please don't go. Don't leave me alone again._

Judai tugged at Yusei's grip for a moment, as though to escape—but he wasn't really trying.

“I'm sorry,” he said again.

“For what?”

Judai peeked out from under his bangs, and Yusei could see his eyes thick with tears.

“My dad...he's the one that—that makes life so hard for you. I'd—I'd understand if you didn't want anything to do with me.”

Yusei shook his head.

“What are you talking about? You...you're...”

_You're important. You're so important._

_Don't go._

“I can't ride Shooting Star without you,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don't want to ride Shooting Star without you.”

Judai's tears rolled down his cheeks now, and he pushed one hand to his eyes to hide them away.

“I don't want you to hate me,” he whispered. “Please...please don't hate me.”

As if in response to Judai's distress, Kuriboh leaned into his legs, huffing loudly. The motion threw Judai temporarily off balance, and he let out a tiny yelp as he stumbled forward—

Yusei caught him by both shoulders as the boy fell against his chest. For a second, it seemed like Judai was going to jerk away, try to escape Yusei's grip, but Yusei tightened his arms around Judai, and both of them fell still.

For a moment, that was all—they just stood there, holding each other, Judai's face pressed against Yusei's shoulder, Yusei's face against Judai's hair.

“We keep talking about my dream,” Yusei whispered. “What about yours? Where do you want to go on Shooting Star?”

Judai's hands curled into Yusei's shirt. He whispered something into Yusei's chest, something that Yusei couldn't here.

“What?”

Judai looked up, right into Yusei's eyes, and for a moment, Yusei thought he could see the stars there again.

“I want to go wherever you're going to be,” he mumbled. “That's all I want...all I've wanted since I met you.”

His eyes bubbled with tears.

“But I...my family hurt you and I...I don't deserve....to be with you...because of that...”

Yusei wasn't sure if he moved first, or if Kuriboh simply flopped against the back of his legs and made him drop forward.

One way or another, his lips found Judai's.

For a second, Judai didn't respond, frozen as though shocked. But it only took half a second for him to melt forward into Yusei, to push up on his toes to meet the kiss.

Yusei had no idea how long it lasted but it didn't feel long enough when they finally broke away, gasping for breath.

“Okay,” he said. “I think I can help with that part of your dream.”

“Yusei...”

“I still want you, Judai. I want...I want you with me. We have to do this together, or I...I'm not doing it at all.”

Judai looked up into Yusei's eyes, his deep brown eyes shining. He tried to smile through his tears.

“God,” he whispered. “I don't know why I deserve this.”

“You made me not alone anymore, Judai...you made me feel happy again. If that doesn't mean you deserve to be here, I don't know what does.”

“Yusei...”

Yusei squeezed Judai's hand tightly.

“I won't ride in the Cup without you,” he said. “So please. Will you come with me?”

_I don't want to be alone again._

_If there's a shooting star up there right now for me to make a wish, that's all I ask._

Judai hesitated. Then he curled his fingers in between Yusei's smiling as he ducked his head.

“If you want me with you,” he said, “then I'll be there.”

Yusei could not stop the smile that broke over his face.

“We'll show them,” he said. “We'll show them what a shooting star really looks like.”

Judai had to smile back.

“Yeah. We'll do it.”

~

“And coming up to the starting line now in an unprecedented team up, Commons rider Fudo Yusei, and his partner Yuki Judai!”

The crowd was nothing more than a faint din, an echo to Yusei's heart thrumming in his ears as he guided Shooting Star into place. There were some boos there among the cheers, but he wasn't paying attention to how many. It didn't matter. By the end of this first match, they'd have dazzled them with their Shooting Star.

He could feel Judai's arms tight around his waist—nervous, still, even after all of their practice. He grinned as he reached down once to squeeze Judai's hand.

“You ready?”

When he looked over his shoulder, Judai's grin was as bright and shining as any star ever could be.

“Let's knock 'em fucking dead,” he said.

Yusei grinned back.

Beneath them, Shooting Star hummed—ready to fly.

Ready to carry them forward, deep into the sky, past the moon, and into the stars where their dreams were waiting.

 


End file.
